<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
Five people responded to my question about catfish and their gf status,
since farm-raised catfish eat mostly grain. 2 respondents hated catfish
too, 1 loved it, and I got interesting comments all around. Here is what
they said:
*Catfish is the only fish I cannot tolerate. I stopped eating it years
ago. The thought of it makes me nautious.*
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*How about chicken- I am sure they are fed grain also.*
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*Boy, that's an interesting question. I ADORE catfish and have eaten it
for years. It sounds to me as if you have gotten bad catfish...it
shouldn't have any smell to it at all. Are you buying fresh or frozen
fish? I've used both, but I do what I do with all fish before I cook it:
soak it in salted water as it defrosts (or after I bring it home from
the fish market. And change the water often. This seems to get rid of
any "off" taste.) I dunno, though...your question raises some
interesting points, which I unfortunately can't answer...*
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*... consider how catfish are farm-raised. to be grown so
closely together they need additives to be ingested that are not in
"normal catfish life." things like pesticides, fungicides, etc.....you
may be reacting to something not in the environment of cold water fish.
i have heard via conjecture, anecdote (not provable in court) that
some fish farmers, if not most, add things to water to sustain
catfish life, things that would not be necessary if raised in wild.
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*I'm from Minnesota and when I moved to Dallas 24 years ago eating
catfish in MN was verbotten. I finally tried it and I find it to be
mushy and fowl tasting. I don't care how many people tell me it's
wonderful - it's a scavenger (at least in MN). It eats dead things!
Maybe that's why we don't like it!*
I may give catfish one more try and use the soaking technique, but after
what two people said about additives in the water and scavenging, I may
chicken out on catfish, if you'll excuse the pun. I may be reacting to
some additive, is my first thought. As far as scavenging goes, I bet even
farm-raised catfish eat whatever they find on the bottom, too, not just
their kibble. (But I eat crabs without any problem--boy, are they
scavengers!) The comment about chicken was interesting too; they and
other poultry are fed grain, yet most of us have no problem with eating
them. So it looks as if the grain content of the catfish diet may have no
bearing on why some of us do have trouble with this particular fish
(although fish and chickens digest things differently, as do cattle). Our
trouble with catfish may be unrelated to any gluten content, but another
one of those other sensitivities so many of us have.
Good luck and good health!
Bobbi in Baltimore
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